Insomnia: The Night Prowler There was a time when I slept the sleep of the innocent. That was in the dim distant past. Menopause first threw a spanner in the machine, with its 3-4am wake-ups. Once I was wide awake, too bad, that was it for the night. Man-o-pause...

The End Always Sounds So Final Here we are, just a couple of days from the end of 2014. For some of us, we might be saying, ‘Pshew…I’m so glad I got through that one!’ Others might be resisting the end, thinking, ‘I’m never going to...

via pinterest – calmdownnow.com There’s a reason meditation is recommended as a tool for training a busy mind to become quiet. Because, if you give meditation a go and stick with it, like yoga, it works. I’ve had a patchy history of the...

via pinterest Every now and then, I fall off the wagon. I recognise that I need to re-incorporate corpse pose into my yoga practice. Writing a post about this pose will inspire me, and you too, if need be. I first learned about corpse pose (savasana) from one of my...

Generally speaking, I think people (including myself) don’t know how to be tired. Think about it. Do you recognise when you are weary and stop and rest? First of all, you have to be in touch with your body and mind to notice when fatigue symptoms are arising....

The miracle that our human body is goes unnoticed most of the time. A yoga teacher has the privilege of bringing people home to their bodies in the way she conducts classes – and hopefully to a sense of wonder and appreciation about our embodiment. Over the...

Sometimes my body does my bidding without complaint, and other times she is just 68-years old cranky. After 2-1/2 hours of weeding, shovelling, and mulching in the garden, my lower and upper back and hips were demanding some nice treatment. Thank goodness I had a few...

I hear countless conversations, read articles and hear lectures about how yoga is not just a physical exercise system. We’ve all heard them. We’ve even said such things ourselves. Still, it’s a hard habit to break, that is, considering yoga as a way...

Here a couple of poses for your yoga tool kit whenever you are plagued by hay fever or sinusitis. The first one comes via the California-based yoga teacher Donald Moyer and is a version of savasana. In the photo, you see Heather lying on a long double-folded blanket,...

Oh my, it’s been hot here! This extreme humidity feels like it stacks on tons of degrees to the temperature. I tell the yoga students who venture out on sultry days that they get extra yoga merit points in heaven for attending class when our brains are feeling...

Like the family of poses called inversions, back bending poses can elicit a love-hate relationship with yoga practitioners. This fact sparked a post I wrote a while back called “Befriending Backbends”. My intention for the sequence I’m going to teach...

When I teach the yoga relaxation in winter’s chilly temperatures, I see students getting into their lying down positions, pulling socks and jumpers on, and wrapping themselves up in blankets as tight as mummies. Of course we want to keep warm but not at the risk...

Here’s a relaxation for your Easter break, a time when you hopefully have a little more time to renew yourself. You might want to record this “script” for your iPod or iPhone so you can make the words your own. Relax your eyes and forehead. Allow...

This is a simple, effective version for restoring balance to the mind and body. I recommend that you record it to listen to. The Voice Memo Ap in an iPhone works very well for this purpose. Lie down for Savasana with your head supported on a blanket, and a block...

Organise your yoga program to allow for a cool down in the 15 or 20 minute period just before savasana. This will give the most satisfactory relaxation. An artfully designed sequence will segue from inversions to twists to forward stretches, then savasana. Along this...

I gave the group in this morning’s class a good physical workout. Towards the end of the 90 min. session, they lay down and relaxed. Sometimes I lead them through a progressive relaxation of their bodies, but today I thought I would be completely silent and give...

We all need to relax. Cyclones and flooding in Queensland, bush fires in Victoria, mega-snowstorms in the U.S., and insurrection in Egypt. Even over here in peaceful Mitchells Island, this evening the neighbour’s dog monstered the gelding who got loose and ran...

(The photo has nothing to do with the content of this post, but is redolent of my rural setting, so I wanted to share it with you.) Many friends of mine have parents who are either moving into aged care facilities or, sadly, have moved on to Another Plane. As a...